Dxun Memories
by machievelli
Summary: The first battle led by the Jedi was not a pretty sight, and everyone is tested to their breaking point.


Landing Minus 120

"That man could not lead a dying animal to a watering hole." Revan snarled. She was beginning to regret talking her fellow Jedi into coming. Of all the fools to put in charge of this first strike, it had to be Quintain!

Kavar sighed. "I know that Revan, but we are here to help them-"

"Help them what?" The blond woman a head shorter than either of them asked. Marai Devos may have looked like a teenager, but walked like a panther. "Kill a lot of our men for no purpose?"

They all stopped, and the shorter woman glared up at the others. She waved as if trying to clear smoke from her face. "It will be me and mine in that 'sweeping arc' the idiot wants on the ground. Infantry tactics do not translate to fleet action."

"We must-" Kavar began.

"Must nothing!" Marai snarled back. "I know that they will follow where I lead, but I am not going to let a Chair borne, High Family Moron kill my men to give him another victory like Costigan's Drift!"

Revan sighed. "She is right, Kavar. The man thinks of infantry as ships. Unless she has a free hand, we will lose the entire assault force to no purpose."

Kavar nodded sharply. "We will get fleet to put someone else in charge of the ground assault."

*****

Marai walked past the officer's barracks of the Corellian 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Corellian Marine Division. She technically belonged in there, but she had always felt more comfortable with the common soldiers. She opened the door and strode in.

"Ten Hut!" She sighed as the one hundred thirty strong of 1st Company 1st Battalion 2nd regiment 2nd Marine division leaped to their feet and slammed to attention.

"Sergeant Kaoly?" She said.

"Sir!" She could almost see the man quivering in his rigid stance.

"I will say this just one more time for all of you, but especially for you, sergeant. I am a Jedi Padawan. Not some pampered officer. I do not need knee jerk obeisance. If you must call me anything, 'Padawan' is quite sufficient. So the next time we have this…" She waved her hand down that aisle of frozen humanity, "This pomp. Pxpect me to interject some levity." She looked around then sighed. "For the love of all gods, stand at ease!"

Boots slammed in a smart snap, and all eyes were on her. If she had not been trained in the Coruscanti temple, it might have been unnerving. But the Jedi Grand Council also used that temple for their headquarters. She stared back, looking from face to face. There were some that were wary or hostile, having the Jedi sit out the last dozen years of war was enough reason for that. The ones that worried her most were the ones who looked hopeful.

There were only fifteen hundred Jedi among the troops. To assume that they would miraculously turn the tide was absurd. It was like assuming gelatin would be stiffened by mixing ball bearings into it.

"All right my lovelies, we know I was appointed your commander. But you cannot accept me as your leader just because they put me here. So tomorrow morning we're going to meet for the morning PT, and any of you that can keep up with me can have the evening off." She flipped a wave, and turned toward the door.

"Ten Hut!" Even as the boots slammed together, Marai stretched her arms out to the sides, pausing as if posing, then suddenly jerked them together in front of her. Suddenly the lockers leaped as every container in them exploded at the same time. The men and women of the Marines dived for cover, staring around them in shock. There was the click of plastic and the musical tinkle of glass as shards fell.

Marai turned on her heel, looking at the people who stared at her in shock.

"There will be a full inspection in two hours. See to it, sergeant."

*****

The orderly tried to take Marai's over cloak, and she glared at him until he stepped back in haste. The Colonel had tried to suborn the woman, assigning her an orderly, field rank quarters, uniforms, all of which Marai had ignored. She had three robes and the first time that idiot tried to touch them she'd wash his mouth out with laundry soap.

She went to her quarters, laying the pillow on the floor, and knelt on it. She took a deep breath, letting all of her frustrations flow into her lungs to flow out with the air as she exhaled.

There is no emotion-

"Hey Jedi!" She sighed inwardly, then opened her eyes. Captain Sergo glared at her.

"You know that door behind you? It's polite to knock on it."

"You're on duty."

"No, I am not." She closed her eyes again. The peace she sought had not come. Dealing with these people was like trying to meditate in a hurricane.

"Colonel Neelis has you as charge of quarters this evening."

"Then tell your good friend the colonel to schedule it when I have time for it. Right now I am busy."

"Why you pompous-" The man yelped as she went from kneeling to standing right in front of him. He started back from her, and found himself backing as she stalked toward him. He was almost a meter taller, but suddenly he felt as if she were larger than he was.

He suddenly stopped, just as the door slammed between them. He started forward, but he suddenly realized that if he opened that door it would start something he wasn't sure he could finish.

*****

Marai opened the door. The sergeant started to leap up, then stopped himself. "Attention." He said in a normal tone. The marines looked up, saw her standing there, and hurried, but without the frenetic haste they would have shown for a normal officer. They all had their weapons beside their boots as they snapped to attention.

"Sergeant?"

"Inspection arms!" Weapons snapped up into port arms, hands racking back the bolts. Each head ducked to verify that the chambers were empty, then back up to stare straight ahead. Marai waited until the sergeant turned to her, snapping a salute. "Company ready for inspection Padawan!"

She nodded, then paced to the first trooper. She snatched the weapon from his hands, looking the weapon over, then down the bore. She slapped it back into his hands, then stepped to the next.

The door slammed open as she reached the tenth of her men, and a deep voice roared, "PADAWAN!"

Marai didn't flinch. "The bore needs cleaning, Marine." She commented handing it back to him, only then did she look toward the furious Neelis. "I am busy, Colonel."

"You have charge of quarters this evening, Padawan. What part of obeying orders do you have a problem with?"

"Obeying orders that leaves one of your high born flunkies available to play Pazaak while the work needs to be done." She replied stepping to the next trooper.

"Padawan, you're on report!"

"File whatever charges you want, Colonel." She replied. "My job is to make sure my men are ready to fight, not sit on my ass while you and yours get drunk."

"Since Jedi seem to think they rank ahead of the rest of the human race, maybe we should call you General! You're speaking to a superior officer!"

"No, I am speaking to one with a higher rank." She turned facing him down the aisle. "The day one of your stylus pushing wannabes can match my company's scores in PT, unarmed combat marksmanship and tactics, let me know. When you do, I will accept you're orders. Until then get out!" The Colonel felt something pick him up and fling him through the door and slam it after him.

Marai turned, snatching the weapon from the next trooper. "What is that smile for, Marine?"

"You may not be here next week, Padawan."

"Maybe. But do you think any MP would be stupid enough to try to arrest me?"

"Not on this post, Padawan."

*****

Landing Minus 100 Days

Revan looked up from her desk as Marai came in. "Have a seat." She called, shoving the astrographic charts aside. The shorter woman walked over, leaning into the chair. She was still dressed from the field, and smelled of mud and grass.

"I've had… complaints from Colonel Neelis."

"So?" Marai stretched, yawning. "What is it this time?"

"You're driving your men too hard."

"We have a lot of catching up to do. The Mandalorians have done nothing but beat them. We need to teach them that they can win."

"We have superior numbers."

"Their sole occupation for 25,000 has been war with 3 million troops in the field and seven million more ready to deploy if necessary. Our men are conscripts, volunteers and none of them well trained. We may have ten million troops under arms with plans for thirty but the Republic has never tried to field an army over a million men since it's foundation. Unless we are willing to lose those men in mass attacks they have to be trained properly."

"Colonel Neelis claims they have been and you are just bullying them at this point."

"Ah." Marai looked at her old friend. "Look up file zed beta niner fifteen for me, will you?"

Revan turned, her fingers clicking on the keys of her computer. "All right. I assume you can explain why this file is important?"

"When I was given command of my unit, I downloaded a copy of the Book specifications of a textbook assault on a fortified position. Now look at the scores for every company in the division."

Revan tapped the keys, and the different company statistics flashed up. "I still don't understand-"

"Compare the statistics of ammunition that should be expended assuming proper training with the amount the units of fire actually expended in practice."

Revan shrugged, then her eyebrows quirked. "Why did 1st battalion 2nd regiment use so much more ammunition than the others?"

"Because we really went out and fired those rounds." Marai said. "While colonel Neelis and his superiors just marked the boxes as having been done, myself and the other officers of the 1st battalion went out and did the actual training." She leaned back, reaching out. At the small wet bar which was a perk of Revan's official rank of Rear Admiral a bottle rose and poured a measured shot of Alderaani brandy into two glasses. Then the glasses lifted and floated across the room. Revan reached out and caught hers in midair. Marai corralled hers, taking a deep sip. Then she continued speaking pedantically.

"The book specifies how many rounds are average, assuming standard building materials and defending forces of equal size. You always do worse when you're in training until you learn how to do it right. If you look, except for the 1st battalion, every unit of the division expended exactly the right amount of ammunition, and took the exact number of casualties and did the course exactly once." She took another sip, sighing. "Statistically that is impossible. If you look at 1st Bat, you'll notice that the first run through, we took disproportionate losses. But on our fourth run through we took fewer losses even though on that run we faced superior forces."

She set down the empty glass. "What you have is one group of 600 doing what they are supposed to do while the other 11,000 went through the motions and took the kudos. So I will take the approbation of both Colonel Neelis and General Krantz with as many hands full of salt as you wish."

"Revan sighed. "Actually, you were saved by General Shinsei."

"Shinsei? Inspector General Shinsei?"

"What you just told me was what he told General Krantz with a lot more volume." Revan flipped a file off her desk. "Pursuant to his orders, you have been assigned as training officer for the 2nd Corellian Marine Division. How soon can you set up a proper training regimen?"

"I already have it written."

Revan smiled. "Then you had best be about it. You have less than three months."

*****

Landing Minus 20

The 1st battalion snapped to attention as the newly appointed Major in command came down the ranks. Marai looked each over, eyes sliding over each form, missing nothing. She stood facing them all, hands clasped behind her back. "Marines, we're jumping off today. I want to tell you now that I have never led a better group of warriors." There was a murmur at the back of the ranks and she sighed. "What was that Koshide?"

Koshide, one of the members of her original company shouted, "Have you ever led anyone?"

There was a chuckle from the ranks as she cocked a hip, tapping her chin. "I was the one that showed the new apprentices where the facilities were at the Coruscanti temple, so yes, I have." There was a deeper rumble of laughter. She grinned at them. "Be packed and ready people. Dismissed.

*****

Landing minus three days

The fleet came out into a dream come true. Feints by Karath, Malak and Dodonna had drawn away the fleets protecting the twin planets of Onderon and Dxun. The dozen or so Mandalorian picket ships were blown to hell, and they closed on the twin worlds. Quintain was broadcasting his surrender demands as the ship prepared to start a bombardment if necessary.

The commanding Officer, First Blade Cassus Fett however threw a wrench into the works.

*****

"I know what 'Blade to blade' means, Revan." Marai was shouting at her vid screen. "It means Fett doesn't want to come out and fight like a man, and Quintain doesn't know what he's doing to his own damn troops!"

"I understand that." Revan replied levelly. "But Quintain has agreed because of his sense of honor-"

"He thinks honor is a word in the dictionary between Honky-tonk and Honorarium!" She roared. Then she sighed, shaking her head. "It means Revan, that we have to take our troops and fight the Mandalorian Garrison on Dxun with exactly the same number of troops. No more.

"By my estimate there are 135,000 troops there. That means we send in the 4th and 11th Corps, our best men. But damn it, the first rule of infantry tactics is that the defender has a 2 to 1 advantage against the attacker in regular terrain, increasing to six to one in emplacements and every mother's son of them are in bunkers redoubts and bloody fortresses! That means instead of sending the minimum of 700,000 troops we need, we're sending less than 200,000 men into a meat grinder.

"How the hell do you expect me to maintain an army this idiot is busy destroying to make himself look good in the history books!"

"Then it can't be done?"

"Oh it can be done!" Marai shouted. "But the reunion will be ten or fifteen of them sitting around afterward because all the rest of us will be dead!" She switched off then threw the vid unit through the wall. She stalked out into the silent Battalion command room. She went into the office she had been given, and went over the map.

The Mandalorians had scattered across the surface in defensive fortifications that took advantage of every terrain. It would need a full-scale bombardment to take them all out, and thanks to that thrice damned high-born fool they couldn't do that. The second more logical option was a full-scale assault. Ditto.

All right, take it like a meal, one bite at a time…

Her eyes narrowed. Wait a minute. She brought schematic of the fortifications with all of the anti-landing batteries. The defensive fire from the ground batteries covered the planet in a layer of overlapping fire zones. But right there it only covered 92 percent…

*****

"Attention!" Someone shouted, and everyone snapped to their feet. A stream of Jedi came down the aisle in a formation four wide and 20 deep. Eighty of them, men and women of almost as many planets, about thirty of their number of alien races. They split to take the front two rows, and one of them mounted the dais. The commanding officers of the two Corps, the commanding officers of the six divisions, and of the 18 Regiments that were landing had gathered for this final briefing along with the commanders of the shuttles and assault ships.

"Be seated." General Ondine said. She signaled Marai who stepped up before the hologram of the landing areas.

"The Fourth Corps will land here near the main shield complex and disable it so that the 11th could drop in north of them. Once on the ground they will link up, then sweep west through the densest fortifications toward the command headquarters of Fett's defenses. There are fifteen kilometers between the drop zones, and all they have to do to kill us all was keep us from linking up." Marai tapped that gap.

"This section will be taken by the Jedi, and two divisions, the 2nd Corellian Marines, and the 14th Alderaani Scouts."

"Them and what angels?" A voice snapped. One of the pilots stood. "The heaviest concentration of AD is right there, and they'll chop my guys into lunch meat! I will not lead them into an abattoir on their words! If they want to play hero, let them fly the damn shuttles!"

Marai turned, hands behind her back. "You are?"

"Lieutenant Carth Onasi. Telosian contingent."

She walked up to him. Though she was almost a head and a half shorter, there was no question of who was in charge. "Ten of my people will be flying shuttles, Lieutenant." She replied. "As for you, you will fly into that abattoir. And I will be in your crew compartment with the 2nd Marines when they land. So I expect a bumpy trip." She glared into his eyes until he looked away.

*****

Landing minus 13:00, 12:59, 12:58, 12:57…

The assault shuttles roared away from their mother ships, swirling into their assault corridors. Forty squadrons of fighters, exactly as many as the Mandalorians had reported joined them. Behind them four frigates moved into a wheel formation, able to fire past the shuttles.

In the back of Flower 1, Marai put on her headset. "Jedi squadrons, you cover our descent. Everyone else, prepare to execute sunrise on my command." She flipped the switch, going from transmitting to intercom. "Lieutenant, begin descent."

Carth Onasi cursed, shoving the throttle forward. Behind him in serried ranks 900 squadrons, 10800 shuttles in ten waves all began a delicate dance toward immolation. The shuttles approached, ten planetary diameters, eight, seve-

Fire lanced up from the ground, and the fighters roared forward. The three-dozen ships moved as if they knew when an enemy cannon was going to fire. But their primary job was distraction.

"Sunrise in five, four, three, two, execute!"

Almost 450 fighters ripple fired all of their missiles seemingly at the shuttles they were supporting. They were ten seconds behind, nine eight-

2700 fusion weapons went off, EMP slamming everyone's sensors into emergency shutdown. As the stunned ground weapon crews were frantically trying to reboot, the assault force dived out of the artificial sun.

Onasi felt the yoke shudder, holding course by main strength. Behind them the fusion 'sun' died. The guns below began firing again, and now shuttles were being blown into shards. He jerked the ship into a radical evasive. The planet was now a long flat carpet of green and brown below him, marred by the shattered remains of hundreds of shuttles.

The shuttle staggered, wind screaming into the cockpit. Onasi looked to what remained of his copilot, then looked back at the controls. "Crash stations!" He shouted. He held the yoke, fighting not to fly but to live. The ground came up, then they slammed into the trees, sheering through them like an ax.

The ship shuddered to a stop. Carth shook his head, wiping blood from his nostrils. A hand caught his collar, and Marai was there. "Onasi! Are you all right?"

"You wanted a bumpy ride." He hissed in pain.

"Next time don't take me at my word." She laughed. "Come on fly-boy. Unless you want to sit inside a target." He wiped blood from his eyes, and followed.

He jumped down into organized chaos. The first wave of 1500 shuttles had been harrowed, but the survivors were landing, men pouring out. As the infantry pushed outward, 300 of the surviving shuttles disgorged work droids and earth movers that began plowing up trees and soil into berms.

A flight of Aleph fighters pulled out of their dives at zero altitude, racing for the horizon. It broke into elements; each pair diverging sharply. A minute later there were flashes as missiles and cluster munitions shattered the air defense towers that were their targets. Fire slackened as more and more fighters came in ripping apart the delicate net of fire.

There was heavy firing to the north about seven kilometers, and Marai dropped to her knee, bringing up her auto-map. She hissed slapping it against her hip. "Sergeant Kaoly!" A figure slid from a fighting hole, double-timing over. "I assume you are aware we are at Landing Zone Charlie, not Beta."

"Yes, Padawan."

"Any idea where the rest of the 1st Bat is?"

"Five kilometers that way, Padawan." He jerked his head toward where all of that heavy fighting was going on. "Last report less than a hundred."

"Oh wonderful." She sighed. "Who was supposed to land here?"

"They did. 3rd Bat 14th Alderaani Scouts. We're inside their perimeter."

"How many of 1st Bat arrived here?"

"All told sixty of us." He reported. "We're holding a full Battalion front right now. Half of the Scouts of 3rd bat didn't survive to land." He motioned. "Colonel Salvados of the 14th has integrated us into his defenses-"

"We have our own mission, Sergeant. Have all of our men ready to jump off in ten."

"Ma'am?"

"Our buddies need help, sergeant. We're going to go assist them." She looked up as the last dozen or so shuttles of that first wave of shuttles landed. There should be the shock waves of the second wave inbound but the sky was disturbingly clear. Marai raised her head, then snarled. "Communications, now."

Kaoly pointed and she jogged over to a shuttle leaning on its side. A hit had shattered the starboard main landing gear, and the ship had barely landed. She shoved aboard.

"Padawan-"

"Colonel Salvados, I assume." She shook his hand. "We have to break toward the 1st Bat, Colonel, something is slowing down the 2nd wave."

"Jedi?" He asked.

"I can feel it, conflicting emotions, men knowing what they are supposed to do but being stopped." She waved toward the sky, then toward the distance. "And almost a full regiment of Mandalorians are assaulting that line. We have a breathing space and they are doing nothing!" She rammed her finger toward the sky. She brushed the man aside. "Communications, what have we got?"

The man shook his head, flipping a switch.

"Salva seven, get back in formation-"

"Sir, jump off has been ordered-"

"Until the situation has stabilized we will hold position."

"Sir-"

"I will not repeat my orders. Hold position."

Marai snatched up the microphone. "Flower 6 actual to Command second wave. Come in."

"This is Felis six actual. Report, Flower six."

"We have no fire outgoing right now. The 1st has been cut off, we landed at Charlie 10. When are you arriving?"

"I want the situation stabilized." The voice snapped back.

"Colonel Neelis, you are to land your forces as the plan requires."

"Don't tell me what to do, Major! I will hold position until the situation has stabilized."

"You idiot if you don't land it will be stabilized because we're all dead! Begin your landing now!"

"I am not under your orders, Jedi."

She hissed. "Any Jedi fighter this channel, come back."

"Chartreuse 441." Came back a female voice.

"Bakeila, this is Marai, pick out Felis Six's shuttle. If he does not begin is descent in one minute, blow it out of the sky." She flipped to the wide band transmitters. "All shuttles second wave 2nd Marine and 14th Scouts. Begin your descent on my mark."

"I'll see you court-martialed and shot!" Neelis screamed. "Second wave, stand fast!"

"To all the hells with you Colonel sir." Someone shouted back. "We didn't come to look at the planet!"

"Felis six this is Chartreuse 441." The calm voice answered. "You are locked up. Begin your descent now."

"You wouldn't dare!"

"Chartreuse, take your shot." Marai ordered.

"You're blu-" The voice froze.

"That was you're only warning Felis Six." There was several moments of silence. She snarled. "Pilot turn 90 degrees port, come to course 225 plus 30. Return to the Frigate [I]Justice[/I]. Any attempt to deviate from that course will be met with lethal force.

"I will not repeat this, second wave. We need you here, not in orbit. Descend now."

"This is Felis Five. On our way, General. All units, begin assault now, I repeat now."

Marai handed the microphone back to the communications rating. "Sergeant, get our men together at the closest approach. We jump off when I get there." She looked at Onasi, who had tagged along without any clear idea of what to do. "Lieutenant, grab one of the shuttles and get back up there. We'll still need supplies before this is over." Then she and her sergeant ran into the jungle.

*****

Landing Plus 3 hours

"Hold them!" Lieutenant Caslain screamed. His men laid a withering fire into the jungle, Mandalorians falling shattered by explosive shell, blaster bolts and grenades. But even the fifty or so men remaining could not slow the approach of that line.

The magazine dropped and Caslain slammed in another. By his estimate his men had less than two mags left each. When they ran dry the Mandies would roll right over them.

He'd only seen combat once before, and the hell he saw now made that battle look like a bar fight. They had surprised the Mandie Great Phalanx, what they called a regiment, and inflicted heavy losses on them, but numbers would tell. Almost 1500 of them, less than a hundred with Caslain. The Republic troops could bleed them, but they couldn't win.

He saw a Mandalorian in Red armor stand, waving in a complicated pattern, then the 1200 or so survivors began firing, some pinning the Republic troops as others crawled forward, then trading places.

It was hopeless, but Caslain snarled. They would make the enemy pay cash for it!

"1st Bat actual to first Bat, duck and cover now!" A voice screamed. Instinctively Caslain obeyed as a flight of fighters came by. He saw the cluster bombs detach, and he had time to say 'Oh sh-" Then the bombs burst, bomblets spewing out, missing the front line of his defenders by mere meters.

The ground slammed up, slapping him into the air like a vengeful child, the shock wave of intermixed plasma and frag rounds slamming him back down. The fire redoubled, and he staggered to the other side of the crater he hid in. That came from the rear!

He saw a movement, firing instinctively, and gasped as a beam of light swept along, sending his shot skyward. Then four more light sabers flashed to life. Like they were on a micro gravity world the people bearing them charged forward, flipping through the air in great leaps like deer in flight from a predator, their sabers flashing, bullets and blaster bolts being deflected with almost negligent ease as they ran to then past his position. Behind them came Republic troops, firing into the jungle then dropping into position to aid his beleaguered force. A figure ran like a sprinter, then leaped, landing beside him.

"Major Devos?" He asked.

"In the flesh, lieutenant. Where is the rest of 1st Bat?"

"You're looking at it." He waved. "Thirty-five of us."

Marai looked around. "Well as senior officer remaining, that makes you Captain." She said. "What about the rest of the 2nd?"

"They are what's stiffening the 1st, Ma'am."

"3rd?" She asked.

"The hell and gone over to the south. 14th Alderaani are using them to shore up the defenses at Landing Zone Epsilon."

"Any word from 2nd Regiment?"

"None of them made it down, Ma'am. Half of the third is alive over there." He waved toward the firing near 11th Corps.

"What's the distance before link up?" She asked.

"Half a klick. It might as well be on Alderaan, Ma'am. There's a Great Phalanx between them and us."

She sighed, looking toward the south where earth movers were coming in. They settled to the ground, ripping up trenches and building berms. "Pull back into the trenches when they are built." Then she waved and charged north.

*****

Landing Plus Four Hours.

The landing was horribly confused. Elements of the 2nd Marines, 14th Alderaani Scouts, even the 9th Coruscanti infantry 11th Corellian Armor and 97th Duros Engineers had ended up in this pocket between the two Corps of the space-head, along with perhaps two hundred naval ratings that had survived the crashes of their shuttles.

Marai moved to the edge of the northern face of the pocket. There was a minimum of 2500 Mandalorians caught between them and the 11th Corp. If they could keep the fragile bubbles of Republican forces from joining, the assault would fail. She looked at the men in the holes facing the enemy, hunkered down to avoid exposure. The average Mandalorian was better trained and blooded than the average Republic trooper. After all, they had not trained since they were children. The men on this face of the landing had already surrendered in everything but name.

She leaped up, pacing along as if it were the Great Concourse in Cornet. "Listen to me men!" She roared. They looked up in shock as she sauntered past ignoring the fire from the enemy. "In two hours there's only going to be two groups of people in these holes. The dead, and those soon to die." She turned, her Saber-staff flashed to life, a Mandalorian bullet whined into the sky. "If we do not link up with 11th Corps, we die right here. It's that simple." She turned, still clearly in sight, clearly a target, the light saber spinning, now bullets and blaster bolts flying away from her.

"I am not dying in a hole here!" She screamed, then she charged. Behind her, men stunned by her actions leaped to their feet, charging in her wake.

*****

A Spacehead looks like an amoeba, a simple life form reaching outward, stretching to find food or shelter. This one was surrounded by fire, flinching back in some places, in others stretching out still.

*****

Landing Plus Day 4:

Marai leaned against the stone. She tried to remember how long it had been since she slept. The night before the landing? Twenty minutes when no one was shooting maybe thirty hours ago? She looked up as a soldier dropped in the fighting position beside her.

"Padawan Devos?"

"Yeah." She looked up. The troops were moving well, shoving the Mandalorians back. The space-head had grown, shoving outward, flesh burning away, but shoving closer to the Command center even as flesh sloughed away.

"11th Corp wants to talk to you." The soldier told her.

"Tell her to take a number." Marai said. She turned to her map board. "1st Bat 14th, pick up the pace!" The soldier sighed, holding out a secure com link. Marai hissed, snatching it up. "Damn it I'm busy here, General."

"As are we all, Jedi." General Ondine replied. "You're the senior officer in the pocket, Padawan. How is your situation?"

"FUBAR, General."

"Can you hold?"

"As long and we have ammo and men." Marai replied.

"Then attention to orders. By my command, you are Commanding General of the units in the pocket. Push them back, Marai. Break through."

Marai sighed. "We'll do what any mortal being can."

"I'd ask no more."

Marai handed the com back to the soldier. He left her as she looked over the map. "Mach!" The older man dropped into the fighting hole beside her. His hair was tied back with a ribbon, the robes filthy from constant fighting. "Take over here." She ordered. Then she was running as if four days of fighting was just a catnap in life.

*****

Firebase Charlie: Landing Plus 14 days ten hours

The men of seven units fought, expecting to die any moment. It no longer mattered where they were from, what planet or government. Five planets spawned the one hundred men inside the revetments, and all they wanted was to see the next day.

The idea was that the firebases would force the enemy to come to them. Well it had worked better than the Republic divisions had expected. The Mandalorian 4th Order, almost 5,000 troops had marched to raze this defensive network. Two more Orders were hurrying to join them, hopefully before the Republic could break through the cordon they had created.

Lieutenant Destaign of Castigan ducked as another sheaf of mortar rounds blasted the revetments. One round punched through a bunker's roof, and his effectives dropped to 90 in a heartbeat.

He wiped the dust from his eyes, looking out in bleary horror. There was movement down there, and he knew the end was near. They had held and held and held. There had been 300 at the start, facing 4,000. Now? Less than a hundred facing maybe two thousand. They had been worn down like an abrasive saw blade against stone, eating through his men even as it wore itself away.

But like the blade his men were also being eaten away.

He saw a movement, turning to aim, then the rifle was ripped from his hand. He looked at the woman in Jedi robes who now stood beside him.

"Lieutenant Destaign?" He nodded, too tired to speak. "I am General Marai Devos. What is the situation?"

"FUBAR." He snapped. He glared as she snorted a laugh.

"Great minds think alike, Captain."

"Lieutenant." He snarled.

"Not any more." She looked out across the jungle. "The 9th Echani are pushing this way. They should be here in ten hours."

"Yeah, well I can't guarantee we'll be here to meet them, General."

"The artillery on the North face of the defenses is tasked for our support." She told him. "They are on call now." She lifted a pair of artillery observer designators. A laser shot out, hitting a tree. The system automatically marked her position, the artillery batteries, and the target. Then she raised her com link. "Target, 200 meters north of this position. Three rounds, fire for effect."

"Shot." A quiet voice said.

"Cover!" She screamed as a banshee wail of steel arched overhead. She dived for cover as the same quiet voice said one more word.

"Splash."

The jungle heaved as shells ripped downward, shredding the trees, plunging through to throw gouts of plasma and metal shards into and through the men that sheltered there. The second volley blasted trees from the ground, the third buried the assault force.

Marai walked the fire back and forth. The Mandalorians assaulted them but the fire ripped them apart again and again. Hours passed, ten hours went by, but the Echani had been pinned down and were still hours from linking up.

The battle raged, 2000 throwing themselves against the smaller defensive force. Darkness had fallen, but if anything the intensity of the fighting increased. Midnight came and went, but still the Echani did not come. A hundred became 75, then fifty, finally only thirty-five remained as dawn drew near.

The fire slackened as men ran out of ammunition. There at the edge of the forest, a man in Red armor stood, looking toward them. As if summoned men began standing from concealment. Too many remained.

Destaign looked as Marai as the enemy charged. "I think it's time General." She stood looking back, then made a motion as if to say, 'what are you waiting for? Come on!' The Mandalorian commander raised his arm, and five hundred throats roared in defiance, then they came forward in a charge.

Marai looked at the men screaming up the hill, keying her com unit. "This if Firebase Charlie. FPF at this time."

"General-"

"Give the order, Mach." She ducked, reaching out to take her comrade's hand as hell fell from the sky. But even as the early morning was ripped asunder she prayed, "Gods if someone has to die, please have it be anyone but my people."

FPF, or final protective fire is the last gasp of any surrounded unit. You are still trying to stay alive, and you are willing to let your own kill you if it means you might live.

During the night the guns had been moved closer, positioned with exquisite care. Those in position had fired if called, but most had been silent. But now five hundred guns and mortars opened fire. Not all at the same time this first salvo. The guns at the farthest distance or highest arc fired, closer guns firing next, then closer. It's called Time on Target or TOT. The flight time of every round had been plotted to within a tenth of a second.

Not one shell landing or a dozen or a hundred. Five hundred shells landed in the space of less than a second, surrounding the few trenches and surviving bunkers with gouts of flame. The people in them hunkered down, screaming in the din as they were beaten from all sides by shock waves. A dozen or so Mandalorians lucky enough to be ahead of the wave of death ran toward the enemy. Their only hope for survival. Only three survived to dive in the holes, and each became an anteroom of hell as the Republic troops and they fought with weapons more suitable to five hundred meters distance.

And still they came, shell after shell until nothing stood or grew within a half a kilometer of that hill.

*****

Landing plus 3 weeks, two days.

The shuttle dropped, and Marai ran toward the fortifications. She heard scattered shots as she went through the doors.

A Republic sergeant moved to the side then aimed as the squirming Mandalorian who lay there, his back already a ruin from other fire. He started to squeeze, then felt a battering ram slam him off his feet and into the poured ceramacrete wall. He was spun around, and found himself lifted by his throat as the furious Jedi held him from the ground.

"You dare murder injured prisoners?" She screamed. She lifted, throwing the 120 kilo man as if he weighed less than his rifle. He slammed down on his face, rolling onto his back as she stormed toward him. Instinctively his weapon came up. There was a flash of light; the smell of ozone, and the rifle along with three fingers of his right hand hit the ground.

"Meruc!" She roared. A sergeant, at least according to the painted on chevrons ran over, and Marai pointed at the injured sergeant. "Arrest him." She snapped.

"I was obeying orders!" The sergeant clutched his injured hand screaming.

"Who gave this order?" Marai reached out, and the man was suddenly floating in midair, frantically trying to breathe. "Who, damn you!" He clawed at invisible hands, looking toward a nearby building. She flipped her hand as if throwing away something and the man flew into the wall again, knocked mercifully unconscious. Marai hit her com. "Max units this is General Marai! You will not shoot injured Mandalorians! If you do I will by all the gods kill you myself!" She screamed.

A Colonel with the chevrons of Naboo sat at the desk, feet up, sipping Tihaar. He rose as Marai enter, sketching a salute. "General-" He waved grandly toward the building. "I give you-"

"Did you order your men to kill prisoners?" She snapped cutting him off. "Did you tell them to kill the wounded?"

"They violated a truce, General. I just returned the favor."

She glared at him. "You idiot!"

A private came in through the door behind her. "General."

"Arrest the colonel, Private Lee." She snapped.

"Arrest!" The Colonel shouted. "We took this fortress-"

"I don't care if you won the entire war! Arrest him. Now!"

The private unslung his rifle, covering the officer.

Marai stormed from the building, spinning as she heard a series of carefully timed shots from another building. She raced toward the building, disappearing inside. There was a scream of pain, and a few moments later she shoved the screaming man out ahead of her. His right arm ended at the wrist, his left at the elbow, neatly chopped away by her light saber.

"All units, report to the command center. Now!" She ordered. It took a while. Along with her twenty-five there were only about seventy in that clump of troops. The sergeant that had been arrested and the colonel who had given the orders were to the side, still under guard. Marai knelt by a pair of stretchers. One held a man in Mandalorian armor, the chest and back armor removed, his back bandaged. The other… She lifted the sheet, looking at the gentle face she knew so well.

_Lazasar._

She turned to face the man. "Blade?" She spoke softly in Mandalorian.

"Jeedai." He replied softly. "Forgive them their anger."

"I cannot. It is wrong what they have done."

"One of mine gave the order." He whispered. "Against mine."

"I know this, Blade." She said. "I know the honor of your people."

"Honor absent in their act."

"In both acts. We will heal you-"

"No." He opened his eyes, looking at her with his head laying forward on the stretcher. "They had besmirched my honor. I will hunt them through all the hells for this."

"They are dead, Leader." She deliberately misunderstood him.

"I will do as honor demands."

She stood, waving to one of her guards. "Corporal Hun, your sidearm." The woman drew her pistol, and Marai took it. She turned, kneeling again, pressing it into the Mandalorian officer's hand. "Harry them." She said.

"General." Hun said, starting to unsling her weapon.

"Don't worry. You can get your pistol back in a moment." Marai told her turning and walking away. She had walked less than ten paces when there was a single shot behind her.

She stopped facing the men, both hers and the survivors that had taken this fortress.

"The Mandalorians offered a truce, several men in the fortress opened fire, and in return you butchered them. Their commander was shot in the back and captured, probably so you could parade the horrible monster." She looked them over, and no one seeing that cold face would have thought her happy. "You are all stupid fools." Her finger raked across men of that unit.

"Do any of you know even that much about the people you fight?" She demanded. "By their own laws, the honor of their commander was on the line when he called for this parley. Those who opened fire against his orders were condemned by their law to have their Soochir destroyed, any heroic deeds they had done in their lives destroyed by one cowardly act!

"Their commander would have surrendered rather than continue the defense, but someone among you shot him!" She waved away the protests. "His back was to you while he tried to get them to stop shooting! They had violated the truce and dishonored him by so doing! He would have marched away after executing his own dishonored rather than fight! Yet what did you do?" She glared at them.

"Your attacked and killed the defenders. Acceptable. Then that fool-" She glared at the colonel, '"-gave the order to kill the wounded and prisoners! Not only a violation of Mandalorian honor, but a violation of the laws of war as well! I caught the sergeant," Another glare, "attempting to shoot a wounded Mandalorian unable to even try to defend himself! And that fool." The coldest glare was for the man moaning over his lost limbs. She walked over to stand over the man. "He was walking through the hospital, a hospital with both Mandalorian and Republic wounded, checking to see if they had Soochir so he knew who to spare and who to kill!" She walked back over to stand before the stunned men. Then waved toward the Mandalorians who lay scattered.

"I do not know which of you might have killed them as they lay there, as they stood with arms crossed in surrender, but I will tell you this. You are all filth to be scraped off my boot as far as I am concerned.

"Your unit colors will be returned to you home world, bound in black to show they have been dishonored. All of you will be returned there and discharged in disgrace. All honors to be torn from you. You are not worthy to wear that uniform.

"The sergeant and Colonel will be tried before a court martial for murder of unarmed and injured prisoners. As for this one." She walked over to the man she had crippled. "Did you hear my orders?" She demanded. "Did you hear what I said?" He looked up at her nodding in terror.

She spun, her light saber lighting and being extinguished in an instant, and the man's head fell to the side. "I said that if my orders were disobeyed, I would kill you myself.

"I am a woman of my word."

*****

The shuttle dropped, and Marai was running even before the skids touched, running to dive into one of the tents. Mach looked up from the map table, then signaled to one of the men beside him. "Signal to Revan. We may need her down here."

He walked toward the tent, feeling every one of his fifty-odd years. This one campaign had worn him down to elementary gristle and bone. He felt twice his age and he just wished it were over. He stopped outside the tent, trying to think of a way to knock on cloth.

"Go away, Mach." He could tell that the woman was crying. He did not need to hear the hitch in her voice, the sob as she spoke to know that. Her heart had been ripped apart by what she had done this day. Mach knew that.

"Marai-"

"I said go away!"

"No." He shoved through the flaps. A lambent silver blade appeared, and he stopped as it paused less than 10 millimeters from his throat. He paused, looking at the blade calmly. "Have I violated your orders as well, General?" He asked softly.

For a long moment, the blade sat there, as still as a silver bloom in glass. Then it vanished. He saw the woman that had held it collapse then she screamed like a soul in torment as she fell to her knees. He moved forward, and his arms encompassed her.

She cried like a child that had suddenly discovered that it was an adult with the responsibilities that are for an adult, and not a child; a babe that didn't know why a beloved one must die. Why the world did not care that life went on, but one specific life of it must die for all life to continue.

He held her like the daughter he had never had. Tried to comfort her as that father might comfort his child. He knew his actions were little help, but sometimes it would be enough.

But still she cried.

He didn't know how long he held her, but he felt the flap behind him open, then close.

"Admiral-"

"You have comforted, Mach, but you cannot understand. Please, give us time." Revan said.

He sighed, trying to release her, but something in what he had done must have gotten through, because Marai fought to hold on to him.

Revan caught one of her hands, clenching it in a hand that would have crushed anything not made of Jedi flesh. "Marai, we will speak." She said softly. "If you must hold to Mach I will allow it, but you must listen."

Marai turned away, clenching her eyes shut. But Revan reached out, and her gentle hand did what a fist of iron could not, it turned those pained eyes toward the other woman. "You killed the man in front of his fellows, slaughtered him like a sacrifice. Do you know why?"

Marai whimpered, trying to look away, but that gentle hand still held her.

"You gave an order, a legal order balanced against one that was illegal. You would not kill the wounded, and you were appalled that anyone would order it. You wanted to stop them, but what of those with darkness in their hearts my old friend?" Revan laughed, but there was no mirth in it.

"You and I both know that the enemy in this war might be the ally in the next, so you treat them with respect. The one you killed would have had those who cheered what he had done, the base monsters within all societies who think the only good enemy is the dead one. This war will end, and even if we smash them to bedrock and scatter them to the stars, there will still be Mandalorians. If we would not fight this war again in a generation or two, we must give them the honor they are due, as you gave it to the Blade so dishonored."

Her other hand came up, gently stroking Marai's hair. "My brave one, the worst part of war is those with darkness within them find their heart's desire in the slaughter. Just as those like you find the strength to be stronger than you can imagine. You know as well as I that the monster you slew would have become worse in time, perhaps even become a leader and so drawn others to the darkness. Like s surgeon, you cut out that cancer at it's root."

Revan moved forward, her arms encircling both Jedi. "We must always give honor for honor, or the Jedi mean nothing."

*****

Landing Plus 4 weeks.

Three hundred fifty shuttles sliced through the pre-dawn darkness. 4th Corps was trying a bold stroke. The Mandalorians were still in almost half of the redoubts, but if they could seize the narrow pass at Shalitar, it would cut them in half. 11th Corp was already force-marching toward the pass. And when they arrived they would link up, then sweep down like a blade smashing the trapped Mandalorians on this side of the pass, then sweep back the other direction, clearing the remaining enemy troops.

That at least was the plan.

But it is said no plan survives contact with the enemy…

*****

Brissia had felt a twinge of nervousness at the planning. Senior pilot and squadron commander, only survivor of those Jedi that had been shuttle pilots, she had felt the plan too bold. She stood at the table, laying out the landing zones, the order of departure and landing, which would be tasked with flak suppression, and for medivac. The squadron commanders and their execs listened gravely.

The shuttles on this mission were over half of what remained of the entire assault force that had come here a month earlier. Blade to blade limited every resource except for ammunition food and fuel. No additional vehicles, guns, men. The repair crews had worked like slaves to get these running at peak performance. This would be the last grand charge of the shuttles; they didn't have enough for another full regimental assault.

Revan stood outside the tent, waiting until the briefing broke up. Brissia was almost her height, with milk chocolate skin with high cheekbones. Her hazel almond shaped eyes twinkled as she sketched a salute. "Ready to go, Admiral, suh." She grinned. The grin faded at the cold mask Revan had started to wear so that a girl barely in her twenties would not distract those who she led.

Revan took off the mask, setting it aside. "This makes me…uneasy, Brissia." She admitted.

"What are you worried about, my friend?" Brissia grinned again. "After all, you know I was born to be hung."

Revan smiled back sadly. "Then come back and prove me wrong."

Brissia walked to the shuttle, and all of them lifted by squadrons, and flew into the night.

*****

The shuttle split into squadrons, less than thirty seconds from their landing when the 'plan' met the enemy.

Brissia wasn't even sure what had caused her to jerk the shuttle to the right, but the ravening blast of a laser fire missed them by scant meters.

"All units! Drop where you can!" She shouted. Then she spun the shuttle on one wing avoiding the fire of the enemy by such a bare margin that the heat bloom still scarred the hull.

She could have survived, dropping like a raptor to deposit her men on the ground, but she commanded more than the thirty men of her cargo and crew. She commanded all of those shuttles, and every one blasted from the air was another ounce of her own flesh ripped away. She reached out, feeling the gunners on the ground, the weapons that sought their deaths, and began rapping orders out like a metronome, the shuttles going from panicked flight to calm descents, dodging when she said landing where she told them. Almost 200 of those shuttles made it to the ground, but almost as many were still in the air.

Brissia was still giving orders, trying to save her command when a laser punched through her shuttle from stern to bow. The ship exploded, blasting a spray of flesh and metal that rained down across a cone three kilometers wide.

*****

"He did WHAT?" Marai screamed. They were five kilometers from the pass when the report had come in. The 4th Coruscanti light infantry had come down in the wrong LZ, and had been surrounded. She had known the order of battle of both Corps before they had arrived, and she had called Revan because the 4th Coruscanti weren't part of it.

Revan sighed. "Quintain negotiated for removal of injured and wounded using med-corps shuttles a week into this mess. About a week later he suddenly realized that the enemy didn't know if the shuttles were empty on the way down. So he moved men down into the center of the cleared zone."

"Men." Marai answered flatly. "How many men?"

"Two divisions."

"And his own command staff let him? He promised Blade to blade, Damn it! Exactly the same number of troops, exactly the same conditions!"

"They obeyed because he didn't tell the command staff he had done so until those shuttles took off. Both divisions were Coruscanti. The first I knew about it was when they were tasked as the 4th Corps' assault front."

Marai growled. She counted to twenty in Basic, then in Corellian then in Echani. It didn't help. "Does he understand that every prisoner they have taken is open to being executed legally because of this?" Marai asked softly. "That the troops on Onderon can legally refuse to surrender if they discover this? That he swore an oath of honor with a people to whom honor is the be all and end all?"

"His reply to that was that honor means nothing compared to victory."

The numbers became Mandalorian, much better when your blood boils. "Has anyone told the fool that he could have merely ignored the challenge rather than violate it now?"

"Of course. But we lesser mortals are not geniuses."

"Spare me from military geniuses." Marai snapped. "What will you have of me?"

"They are cut off. They need relief. You're the closest."

"If he had filled those shuttles with my men half would be dead but we would have fought our way clear. Numbers and unit cohesion don't mean anything unless you have survived battle before. We have proven that here. So my men are thrown into the meat grinder to save those fools." Marai said. "Well we had best be about it."

The 2000 men of the combined 2nd Corellian Marines and 14th Alderaani Scouts were in the van, and Marai had sent them like a blade into the stiffening Mandalorian defenses.

'Advance to relief' is the military term. But the term ignored that to get from where the Republic troops now were to where those men held to life, they had to go through a narrow defile, and over a thousand troops held it. The 'plan' had expected the 4th to be here, a cork in the bottle instead of the Mandalorians.

The lead company came apart as dozens of mines exploded. The rest of the point dived for cover. Massed fire raked down from the pass, tearing into the men now huddled for cover.

Marai signaled, and the communications rating scrabbled across the ground. She snatched the longer ranged com handset. She tried to think. "Viper Actual to Zed command."

"Viper authenticate Delta Victor niner."

"I don't have time for that rear echelon crap!"

"Unit on this channel, either authenticate or-"

Put Trancas on or I will come back there and shove that commo gear down his throat! " Marai screamed. "This is General Devos, you pusillanimous overburdened fool!"

There was silence for a moment, then another voice came on. "Have you reached the pass yet, Jedi?"

"The pass is occupied. We need a barrage to keep them down so we can clear the minefield."

"Unacceptable." General Trancas snapped. "According to our intelligence they have half your numbers. Attack like you mean it and they'll collapse."

"These are not like those rear echelon pukes you command, Trancas. They are men trained and bred for war."

"Are Jedi cowards?" Trancas shouted. "Advance or I'll have you shot!"

Marai threw the hand set aside. A Republic Captain named Sierna dived into the mud beside her. "General, we just lost the last heavy transport. Command is telling us they don't have any more. All artillery is committed elsewhere, and we have no air support at all." She wiped the mud from her face. "Without the combat droids, without artillery, we're just going to die." She looked grim. "General, we'll charge, and we'll die. But will it be worth it?"

Marai lifted her electro binoculars. An attack had been staged, and the 14th had charged in and were now pinned down. They'd lost seventy or eighty men already and would lose more, but there was a minefield between them and the 2nd Marines.

There was a thunder of mortar rounds, and Marai was flung from her hole into a tree. Her left leg snapped like a twig as she fell into unconsciousness.

Sierna checked her, then shouted, "Medic!" She scrabbled over to the rating raising the handset. "This is Viper three to Command. The General is down-"

"Attack as ordered, Viper three. "

"Sir there are mines we have to clear-"

"Drive the cowards across them, damn you!"

"Sir-"

"Obey your orders or I will have every tenth man in both units shot. The 3rd Fondorian are right behind you and they have orders to open fire if you retreat one centimeter!"

She lowered the handset, dropping it beside the body of the boy who had been carrying the commo gear. She felt a presence behind her. It was the old man, what was his name? Mach.

"The General has ordered us to advance or the 3rd Fondorian will kill us where we stand."

Mach sighed. Then he stood. He faced toward the pass, taking a deep breath. Then… He moved.

The old man flew forward like a missile, fire from the enemy striking all around, then he was behind the trapped 14th. Now out of sight of the Mandalorians, he lifted pebbles with his thoughts, not one or ten or fifty but thousands, a veritable bee swarm of stone that hovered. Then snapping as they passed the speed of sound. Hundreds of them slammed into the ground and their proximity set off the delicate trembler switches in the mines. Again and again they exploded and the 2nd Marines charged.

He wasn't as good as Marai, he admitted to himself as the first man was blown apart. She could feel the weight and heft of mines and make them explode in swaths. All he could do is try to clear a path.

The men charged past him, and both units charged on into the pass. Mach collapsed, breathing heavily. He was too old for this- He turned as dozens of Mandalorians filtered down through a narrow defile.

"Well someone has to do it." He sighed. The Mandalorians hadn't seen him yet; they were still trying to get into position to flank the charging men. Mach dropped into their ranks like a living saw.

*****

Marai came awake, seeing the cool green of a Kolto tank around her. Hands caught her arms, dragging her up into the air. Other hands wiped her dry as she lay gasping.

"General?"

"How long?" She asked, coughing. How she hated the smell even of medicinal Kolto!

"Two days, General." Someone said. She looked at the medical rating. She knew she had been sent back to the central fortress, there was no way a man in the field hospitals could look that clean.

"What of the pass?" She demanded. She stood on shaky legs. "And where in all of the hells are my clothes?"

"In which order?" The man tried to be amusing, but her glare silenced him. He pulled out a package, and she began to dress as he reported. The pass had fallen that day, with almost half of her men. 300 men, most too shell shocked to be of any use had been saved.

"Well no help for it. Have Mach see what we can get as to supplies and I'll…" She stopped talking at the look on the medical rating's face. "What?"

The man led her to the morgue. Mach had been torn apart by weapons fire and blades. She looked at the old man she had come to love, touching his brutalized face. "How?"

The enemy sent a sortie out to get behind the assault forces. He saw them and kept them occupied until relief could arrive. There were a hundred of them according to the reports. Ten were killed by your troops or got away. The rest…" Her gestured to the body.

She walked into the sunlight, looking around. The command bunker was over there, and she stalked toward it. The guards tried to stop her, so did staff officers. She was mildly surprised that she didn't kill every man that tried.

"We'll begin the sweep-" Trancas was saying as the door slammed open.

Marai came in like death arriving at the party.

"Congratulations Ge-" She slapped him. Not as if he were a child or she a woman, but with all of her arm and fury behind it. Someone grabbed her arm, and she stomped, the man screaming as she crushed his foot. She reached down, hands catching the heavy table and flung it out of her way as if it were a twig.

"The next time you threaten my men I will rip out your heart and hold it in my hand for you to see as you die." She snarled. "And we will accept no more orders from you. If this displeases you I suggest you do something about it personally. If you have the guts."

Trancas was relieved the next day. Marai assumed command of 4th Corps.

Landing; day before the end.

The troops sat, looking toward the enemy fortress. Marai looked them over. Of the entire 2nd Corellian Marine Division, all 45 of them remained here. They had been folded into the 14th Alderaani Scouts, by far the larger with 60 survivors. But all of them were warriors that had fought side by side, closer than brothers, for they had shed blood for each other in the last month. The last fortress was there, Cassius Fett's stronghold. She stood, allowing the Mandalorians to see her. Her men weren't alone. The remainder of the 4th Corps had surrounded the series of redoubts two days earlier, and she had ordered them to wait.

A man on the wall stood, then held his rifle where she could see it, then with broad motions unloaded it and set it down before raising his right arm into the air.

Marai drew her saber staff, igniting it, then turned it off and set it on the ground.

"Parley." She told her men. "No assaults, no slaughter of the wounded this time, right?"

"You wound us." A lieutenant replied.

"It takes more than words to penetrate that skin, Bao Dur."

The men laughed as she walked forward. Behind her rifles were snugged into shoulders, cheeks pressed against stocks. If a single man even aimed at her, they will kill him.

The gate opened, and a man in the armor of the Mandalorian Staff walked out to face her.

"You are not Cassius Fett." Marai said.

"No, Jeedai Marai Devos." He took off his helmet. He could have passed on any street without notice except for those eyes. "I am Lucius Ordo of Clan Ordo, Aide to Cassius Fett."

"And why do you speak instead of him?"

"Our leader took his life last night, Jeedai."

"_Kashtrial?" _Marai asked. The Mandalorian ritual suicide was well known to her.

"He did not have the honor to take such a step. Instead he used his pistol."

"Ah."

"What men we have left surrender to you, Jeedai." He set his helmet down, then knelt. "Treat them as you will."

She nodded, then signaled to the men behind her. They had bled, always in the forefront, always called for the most difficult assaults, and the harshest trials. While every other unit had been given time to rest, she and her men had been thrown into that hell again and again. A hundred men, all more precious because they had survived. They came forward, weapons down, and stopped behind her.

"Contact headquarters, tell them the command fortress has fallen, Fett is dead. Guard the men who have surrendered until Revan can send down transport. No one is to abuse them even to language unless the prisoner gives cause I deem just. Those are my orders."

"Thank you." Lucius Ordo said. "If I may?"

"By all means." Marai told him.

The Mandalorian stood, then removed his gauntlets. In the sight of his men he dropped them on the ground. There was an almost audible sigh, and on the walls the men stood, setting down their helmets, their weapons.

So it was that with a sigh the battle of Dxun ended.

Landing after end two days.

Quintain's squadron of speeders came racing in, bright metal work glistening to stop in the quad. He stepped down, probably expecting an ovation from his 'brave warriors'. That was what that REMF that had shown up an hour earlier had been saying, but the men had stripped him to his skivvies and tied him up, stuffing him in the trunk of his staff speeder.

What Quintain got was a hundred men doing what any smart infantryman not under fire would automatically do. Eating, drinking, and about half of them were sleeping.

Quintain stepped down, glaring at the men silently. He motioned to one of his officers, a natty lieutenant in starched dress uniform who stalked over to some men passing bottles of Tihaar around.

"Who's in charge here?" He demanded.

One of the figures that had been asleep stretched, and sat up. Marai was filthy and she was in her underwear waiting for supply to catch up with them. "That would be me." She said, standing.

"Name, Rank!" The lieutenant snapped.

"Devos, Marai. Padawan." She put her hands on her hips. "Now my question, lieutenant, is who the hell are you to bother my men."

"How dare you-"

She made one of those ten meter leaps, landing in front of him, a third his size, but quite willing to rip his head off.

"How dare you!" She roared back. She stormed past him toward Quintain. "Lord Quintain, with all due respect, you have no balls."

"Who-"

"You brought a thousand ships, a million and a half infantrymen and you still have no balls. You sent in 120,000 men into this mess, and maybe we have 30,000 that are still alive.

"All because you had to do the 'honorable' thing without thinking." She stopped less than a meter from him. "So have your victory parade somewhere else, take your holos, and bask in you glory, and leave us out of it! You have enough men that are not only alive but clean well fed and need something to do while the real soldiers were fighting!"

Quintain pulled out his notebook. "What units are these?"

"This is what's left of the 2nd Marines and 14th Scouts." She said then she reached up, and caught his collar. "And if I hear one word of complaint from any rear echelon puke about my men I will take every one of your staff officers, and shove them so far up your butt that you'll need a tractor beam to go to the bathroom. Do I make myself clear, Admiral sir?"

The man backed, then climbed back in his vehicle. They sped away.

"Atta girl, General!" Someone shouted.

She turned, and looked around. "Where the hell is the Tihaar?"

"Right here, General." Bao Dur held out the bottle.

*****

Dxun secured: Time before next landing, 180 days

Revan watched as the last shuttles came aboard. The men that came off looked like they had been through an entire war, not just a campaign. They moved aside, and Revan's heart leaped as Marai came into view. She started forward, but stopped at the cold look in Marai's eyes. She stood there watching as Marai helped those of her men that appeared to have been worn to frazzled bits. Then she walked out of the boat bay.

Revan walked into the communications room, looking at the rating. "Get me Fleet command. Now."

*****

Marai glared at the door. The annunciator rang again. She leaped up from her meditation seat. "GO AWAY!" She screamed. Yet it rang again. She wanted to scream; she wanted to run through the passageways killing everyone in sight. She wanted silence! She slammed her hand on the plate, and the door hissed open.

"I see you are still in a bad mood." Revan commented. She walked through the door. Marai looked at her, not in the slightest amused.

"Oh Marai, may I come in? Oh, no? Then I'll go away and leave you in peace." Marai said sarcastically. "That is the way it is supposed to have gone. What is wrong with that script, Revan?"

Revan took off her mask. "I for one hoped that if I offered you a drink you'd forget about any discourtesy." She reached into her robe, concealing the bottle as she poured. "Once we've had this drink, I will leave you to brood."

"I am not brooding."

"If you had come out three days ago, I would agree. But you've spent too much time alone." She turned, holding out the glass.

"Fine I will have one drink then you will go away and leave me the hell alone." Marai snatched the glass knocking the shot back. Then she gasped. "Tihaar?"

"Yes." Revan sipped hers. "You know it may be an acquired taste but I kind of like it." She poured another shot, holding it out. "Here, we're celebrating."

"I said one drink." Marai snapped.

"Not even if we're saying goodbye to Quintain?"

"What?"

Revan grinned. "I reported Quintain's master stroke of violating the Blade to blade. High command has agreed to have him transferred back to a staff position on Coruscant." She held up her glass. "This is to a war with all of the idiots of lesser rank."

Marai sighed, then smiled softly. "All of them of lower rank." They drank the toast.


End file.
